ICELAND: A Republic Is Born

Iceland’s thousand-year-old Althing (Parliament) last week carried out the mandate of Icelanders (TIME, May 15). Every bell in the island pealed as Althing members assembled in the open air on Thingvellir (Parliament Plains), passed a law declaring Iceland an independent republic, voted to make Lawyer Sveinn Bjornsson the first president. Since U.S. troops landed in Iceland in 1941 he had served as Regent for Denmark’s King Christian X, whose objections to an independent republic were overruled by the Althing.